Cease-and-desist letter could halt construction of Nevada lithium mine

Nevada’s state engineer sent a cease-and-desist letter to the company behind the Thacker Pass lithium mine last Friday, demanding it cease groundwater pumping at the request of a local rancher.

That Humboldt County cattle rancher, Ed Bartell, has been wrapped up in a multiyear water dispute with Lithium Americas, which is building the mine near the Nevada-Oregon border that has drawn the ire of environmentalists and some Native American tribes.

Bartell’s legal challenge to the company’s water rights permits was, in part, successful — calling into question the entire 2,800-acre-foot water supply for the project after a judge’s ruling. The sum of 2,800 acre-feet translates to 912 million gallons. Two average, single-family homes use about an acre-foot in total every year.

“It’s extremely imprudent, in my opinion, for them to ramp up construction without having their water rights nailed down and ensuring that the community and their employees are protected,” Bartell said in an interview Thursday.

Nevada is home to the only active lithium mine in the country: the Silver Peak mine in Esmeralda County. Thacker Pass and the Rhyolite Ridge mine near Silver Peak have since been greenlit, as well, but not without concern for water in the nation’s driest state.

According to the state engineer’s statewide assessment from May 2024, the Quinn River Valley Basin that Thacker Pass will draw from is over-appropriated, meaning the annual yield of the basin is less than the amount of water people have the right to pump. The state engineer’s office didn’t reply to a request for further comment on the cease-and-desist letter.

A Lithium Americas spokesperson confirmed that the water rights had been purchased from existing users in the region to avoid any further strain, though it’s unclear if they were being used at the time of purchase.

In a statement, Lithium Americas president and CEO Jonathan Evans said the company is exploring its options to ensure that construction timelines aren’t affected. Originally, the company predicted the lithium mine would be functional by the end of 2026.

“We continue to follow all state and federal laws and regulations and are optimistic we will come to a positive resolution,” Evans said.

The news of the cease-and-desist letter comes just two days after the company hosted a town hall for residents in the small community of Orovada, updating them about construction. Bartell, who attended the meeting, said company officials told residents they were preparing a letter of compliance in response.

Judge partially rules in rancher’s favor

The cease-and-desist letter follows a ruling from Humboldt County District Judge Michael Montero on April 10.

He rendered the water rights application permits unusable, declaring that there was no “substantial evidence in the record supporting the State Engineer’s conclusion that Lithium Nevada’s change applications will not conflict with Bartell Ranch’s Claims.”

And Bartell was quick to make sure pumping didn’t continue under the original permits that Montero had reversed — and provide evidence. But pumping did continue.

It was his photographs and letter to State Engineer Adam Sullivan that prompted the cease-and-desist letter that threatens $10,000 fines each day that the company doesn’t comply, a lawsuit and the obligation to return the water twofold if pumping continues after July 4.

For Bartell, who has ranched in the area since 2008, water underpins his livelihood. Bartell already has seen one of the springs on his property begin to recede with the small amount of water used for construction, he said.

“This is the desert,” Bartell said. “It doesn’t take a huge amount of drawdown to dry up these springs that are only flowing a few gallons a minute.”

Kyle Roerink, of the Great Basin Water Network advocacy group, said the state engineer’s cease-and-desist letter is noteworthy and relatively uncommon.

“Mr. Bartell is a symbol for people who believe that their rights shouldn’t be trampled on just because an entity with a lot of money and a lot of political backing got a couple of permits,” Roerink said.

Montero’s reversal of the water rights permit is a similar tactic used in the case where environmentalists successfully defeated a Southern Nevada Water Authority’s pipeline proposal to move groundwater from the Ely area into Las Vegas, Roerink said.

More data the key to proceed

Now, both Bartell and Lithium Americas will collect more hydrological data to plead their respective cases.

Thacker Pass, though mired in some controversy, has been met with plenty of financial and political support, too.

The project received a $2.26 billion loan from the U.S. Department of Energy in October, and has since raked in a $652 million commitment from an auto manufacturer and $250 million from a global investment firm.

Nevada’s politicians, including Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo and the state’s two Democratic senators, have toured the project site and praised it as cutting-edge. If constructed as planned, it’s expected to produce 40,000 tons per year of battery-grade lithium carbonate — enough to support the production of 800,000 electric vehicles annually.

After approving the loan in 2024 under the Biden administration, then-Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm called the project “key to strengthening U.S. energy security and electrifying America.”

While the Biden administration praised lithium as a solution to de-carbonizing the country to combat climate change, the Trump administration has presented it as a boon to establishing U.S. “energy dominance.”

Bartell, though positive about the future, is fed up with his powerful new neighbor.

“They’ve done nothing to make us whole. They’ve decided they were just going to run us over,” Bartell said. “Thankfully, we’ve prevailed to some degree so far in court, and we’ll hopefully continue to have success.”

Contact Alan Halaly at ahalaly@reviewjournal.com. Follow @AlanHalaly on X.

Lithium Cease and Desist by Las Vegas Review-Journal on Scribd